Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Winter 2019 - 19

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J

ohnny Bench, keynote speaker for the 11th annual Law
Foundation of Berks County and PICPA Reading Chapter
Holiday Benefit Luncheon on December 7, is often referred
to as the greatest catcher in the history of baseball.
In his introduction of the keynote speaker to the crowd of
nearly 500 guests at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Wyomissing,
Benefit Luncheon Chairman Mark Caltagirone related how over
the course of Bench's 17-year major-league career, one in which
he was a vital cog in the Cincinnati Reds baseball dynasty of the
1970s known as "The Big Red Machine," he was named National
League Rookie of the Year in 1968 as well as National League
Most Valuable Player in 1970 and 1972, was
selected to the National League All-Star team
14 times, and was inducted into the National
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989. In describing
how Bench sits alone atop the list of catching
greats, Caltagirone quoted Bench's former
manager, Sparky Anderson, who, when asked
how he would rank Bench with other catchers,
simply said: "I don't want to embarrass any
other catchers by comparing him with Johnny
Bench."
The marquee event for the Law
Foundation, the Holiday Benefit luncheon,
which features a sports memorabilia auction,
helps fund a variety of grants throughout
Berks County, including an annual
contribution to The Children's Home of
Reading. In addition to regularly featuring
former baseball greats as speakers, the luncheon also honors
All-Stars in the community who have dedicated themselves to
serving their neighbors and supporting organizations that make
a positive difference. This year, Pat and Meg Shields of Fromuth
Tennis, Spring Township, received the Sidney D. Kline Jr. Award
for outstanding community service through their leadership
in a number of outstanding Berks County organizations and
initiatives.
While the luncheon happened to fall on Pearl Harbor
Day, it was another date of slightly less infamy, Bench's 71st
birthday, that resulted in the crowd serenading him with a chorus
of "Happy Birthday," along with presenting him with a cake
glowing with candles to mark the occasion. Bench scooped up an
index-finger full of icing from the cake and joked with hotel staff
about how they probably heard him mention it was his birthday
during his remarks and hastily grabbed a cake they had been

planning to serve later that night at a separate event.
What makes Bench the greatest catcher in baseball history
was not just his power hitting (389 home runs and 1,376 runs
batted in, for those of you out there keeping score at home) or his
superb defensive skills (throwing out more than 43 percent of all
runners attempting stolen bases, including a stretch of 29 straight
games during which no bases were stolen by any Cincinnati
opponents, and being awarded 10 Gold Gloves). It was also the
masterful way Bench called a game, selecting the right way to
pitch to opposing batters while handling his own pitcher at the
same time.
Sports columnist William B. Furlong
in a 1970 New York Times article described
the young Bench as searching out, "batters'
weaknesses with remorseless precision
(while determining) their hitting patterns
and preferences" in the process of his
exerting control over the game in calling
for the right pitch to get the batter out.
Of course, all this assumed that Bench
was able to get the pitcher to do what he
wanted. Elaborating on that aspect of
calling a game, Furlong addressed how
many pitchers have their own ideas about
how a game should be called, accompanied
by anxiety bordering on a paranoic belief
that nobody else understands the right way
to pitch to a hitter. Translating this into the
situation of how frequently a pitcher often
feels that, "he is one poor lonely little man standing out there in
the middle of the diamond," Furlong observed that, "it takes an
extraordinary personality to keep many pitchers at an acceptable
level of manic anxiety."
To this effect, Furlong concluded that, "Johnny Bench is that
kind of personality." To illustrate, he recalled how Bench once
"encouraged" veteran Gerry Arrigo to throw his fastball harder.
To get his point across, Bench snagged with his bare hand a
fastball that Arrigo thought had sufficient velocity. Bench then
tossed the ball back to the mound without even moving out of
the crouch. Arrigo was angered and more or less embarrassed
into throwing a heater with more heat. Another incident involved
Bench, then a rookie, directing Reds veteran Jim Maloney,
described in his heyday as a "fireballing right hander," to throw a
curve ball to get a third strike on a batter. Maloney wanted to go
with his best stuff and throw a fastball. No sissy curve balls for
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Winter 2019 | 19
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Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Winter 2019

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